Hello,
Checkpoint 3.8 in the 18 August Guidelines [1] includes the
sentence "Advise the user to refresh content according to
the same schedule as the automatic refresh, and indicate
when the user has not yet refreshed content." The
term "prompt" appears in checkpoints 9.2 and 1.5. The terms
"alert" and "notification" are used in checkpoint 1.5.
I propose the following:
1) That we only use the term "notify" in the checkpoints and
that we define it to mean "inform the user through the user
interface". Note that I do not talk about APIs here. That
is a separate requirement (that messages through the UI also
be available through an API).
2) That "notify" be independent of a particular mechanism
in the user interface (but that any notification be
accessible).
3) That the term "prompt" be reserved for a particular
UI approach, but that we don't attempt to define it!
I would note that the AU Guidelines [2] includes a definition
of prompt, but since then, that WG has had a number of discussions
on the definition (refer to [3], [4], [5], and [6] at least).
4) In checkpoint 3.8, rewrite the sentence cited above to
be "Notify the user ..."
5) We could rewrite checkpoint 9.2 to not use the word prompt:
Allow configuration so the user can confirm any form
submission not caused by explicit activation of a
form submit control.
Otherwise, if we intend to use prompt to mean "the user
must intervene before anything else happens", we should
define it to mean that. I want to avoid having to
define it.
6) What techniques, if any, do we need for notification or
configuration of notification in general?
a) Configuration to have no notification.
b) Configuration to prompt the user and require input
before continuing.
c) Configuration to notify the user but without requiring
any input from the user.
- Ian
[1] http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/WD-UAAG10-20000818/
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-ATAG10-20000203/
[3] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-au/2000AprJun/0199.html
[4] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-au/2000AprJun/0168.html
[5] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-au/2000AprJun/0073.html
[6] http://www.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-au/2000AprJun/0080.html
--
Ian Jacobs (jacobs@w3.org) http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
Tel: +1 831 457-2842
Cell: +1 917 450-8783